Romantic accommodation in houses with a rich history

Services

Car park + breakfast + Wi-Fi

Free car park directly next to the pension or free of charge with our card at P3 (300m, camera surveillance). Most guests park next to the pension. Breakfast is served in the renaissance cellar with a fire place. Wi-Fi internet is available in all rooms.

Sauna + whirlpool + air conditioning

In some of the rooms you can find a sauna or whirlpool or even air conditioning.

Garden + wine shop + kitchen

There is a garden with seating, a wine shop full of wine from Moravína, s.r.o. Valtice (on request). The two apartments also have a fully equipped kitchen.

Location

Pension Athanor is located on the picturesque Plešivecké náměstí, only 300 meters from the historic center of Český Krumlov. The heyday of this town is linked to the reign of the Lords of Rosenberg (1302 - 1602), who chose Český Krumlov as their royal seat. The town and the chateau took their inimitable form from the Italian Renaissance. A Baroque theater was built, among other things, at the end of the 17th century during the reign of the Eggenberg family, and the chateau garden was remodeled. Český Krumlov gained its Baroque appearance during the Schwarzenberg period. Besides the city walls and gates, no significant changes have been made since the 19th century, and the center has retained its historic appearance.

Winding streets, romantic hideaways, and a unique complex of town houses with an imposing chateau above the meandering Vltava River, excellent exhibitions of famous artists, concerts, music festivals, theatrical performances, pubs, cafes and medieval taverns, a diverse mixture of tourists from around the world, this is all what makes up Český Krumlov - a small but cosmopolitan town with a unique atmosphere surrounded by unspoiled, natural beauty. It has been a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage site since 1992.

History

House No. 271 is one of the oldest on Plešivecké náměstí and probably has a medieval past. It could date back to before 1569, when the first property owner was Linhart Schuld (1569). Based on its cost of 70-80 Meissen groschens, it was a small uncomplicated building. At this time 37 properties were located on Plešivecké náměstí, and had the character of farmsteads and barns of the townsfolk mostly settled in the inner city. On Horní Plešivec, however, buildings of a residential nature prevailed from the beginning. Which is probably the case of our house.

The historical layout of the property suggests that a fundamental transformation of the building had to have occurred in the late Renaissance period, as shown in the develop width of the building with a central corridor. On the southern side of the living area there was probably passage into a yard with farm buildings.

It was still a ground floor building, whose hypothetical fundamental reconstruction demonstrates the extraordinary increase in real estate prices between 1596 and 1644. The probable author and investor of the then former late-Renaissance reconstruction was Simon Anders. A garden was first mentioned in the 1640s as a part of the building. Between 1729 and 1774, Baroque reconstruction of the house took place during which an addition al floor was added to the northern core of the building .

An interesting feature is that the house was inhabited for centuries by mainly stove building masters. The court stove builder Franz Kuffart stayed here between 1729 and 1767. However, the whereabouts of his stove building workshop is still a mystery.

Architecture

It is a single-storey building with an irregular ground plan and a hipped roof covered with roof tiles. Due to the rising terrain of the plot, the cellar area at the front of the building turns into underground spaces. All of the rooms in the cellar and on the ground floor are vaulted, and there are flat ceilings on the first floor. The windows are framed with chambranles, decorated with tassels, volutes, stylized shells and saddle-cloth parapet panels..

In the medieval period, there was a ground-floor building delimited by areas in line with the neighboring house No. 99, which is also of medieval origin and in 1893 was even a part of our house. During the Renaissance our building was extended towards the square. A new large cellar areas was created in the basement (today’s dining room) and on the ground floor a similarly large feasting room (living room suite with a whirlpool). An additional floor with a staircase were created during the 18th century. The facade has a Baroque appearance. During the Classical period alterations were apparently limited to the facade.

Historically valuable elements particularly include the medieval and Renaissance spaces and structures in the cellar and the ground floor, the stone door jambs (1692 a.d.) with simple ribbon and stone linings and the preserved fasteners on the window shutters.

Who is responsible for houses with soul?

Specifically, people who manage to turn their dream, their idea into reality. As luck would have it, at the end of 2006 we had the opportunity to experience the beauty of Telč. My wife and I were so impressed by this scenic fairytale town that we decided to try to enjoy its beauty not only as tourists but also as owners of one of the magnificent buildings on the square. The opportunity arose in 2007, when we bought the historic house No. 56, we could look further into its history, the development of the building and in particular the fate of the people who lived there for centuries and created the home. Every generation left their indelible architectural footprint, their story and their spirit. All of this had a large effect on us. An important milestone was the year 2008, when my wife and I ended our long-term employment, and we thought about the next chapter in our lives. Our older son Michael had finished college and was looking for employment. Then came a decision to try to run a family business in tourism and turn our fascination with ancient places with genius loci into a hotel project in historic buildings. In 2009, we managed to obtain more historically valuable buildings in Český Krumlov and Mikulov.

We established the company Athanor CZ s.r.o., which formally encompassed our business plan, thus creating the technical and administrative assumptions for conducting trade. Then all that was left was to bring the idea to life. Then all that was left was to bring the idea to life. With the opening of Pension Baltazar in Mikulov on the 9th of March 2009, the dream became a reality. Chornitzerův dům in Telč was put into operation on the 1st of January 2010 and Pension Athanor was opened in Český Krumlov on the magical day of 11th of November 2011. Since the intention was to create a family project, it is clear that

the family team played a decisive role in the project implementation, which was strengthened in 2011 by our youngest son Martin. Nevertheless, we would like to mention some of the partners who significantly contributed to the project. These are in particular the architect David Maliňák who designed the interiors of our houses in Telč and Český Krumlov, Mr. Vaclav Pelikán from the construction company Status Pelhřimov and Mr. Karel Mikala from the joinery KMT Míškovice. The dictionary tells us that genius loci is a Latin phrase meaning “the spirit of a place”. In Roman mythology genius loci was a spirit or god, protecting a certain place. It is now almost 10 years since our fascination with ancient places spawned the idea to invest in a historic home with a soul. It seems that Roman mythology did not lie and our idol still stands with us. Evidence of this can be seen in our satisfied and returning guests. We believe that this will continue. We obviously also have to attribute ourselves, the whole family, to providing a helping hand in this. We must preserve our idol.

We wish you many beautiful memories from your stay at Houses with soul

Helena and Rudolf Jílek

Visit our houses

Athanor apartments

Pension Athanor is located on the picturesque Plešivecké náměstí, only 300 meters from the historic center of Český Krumlov, which has been a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage site since 1992. Winding streets, romantic hideaways, and a unique complex of town houses, this all makes up Český Krumlov.

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Chornitzer house

Chornitzer house is located on the most beautiful square in our country, called náměstí Zachariáše z Hradce, in Telč. Due to the fact that the historic center of the two has maintained its distinctive appearance from the days of Zacharias of Hradec it was registered in 1992 as a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage site.

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Pension Baltazar

Pension Baltazar is located in the former Jewish quarter, in the lower part of the scenic Husova Street. This street is an important part of the urban conservation area. The old Jewish houses create fascinating scenery, watched over by the mighty guardian of the town, the nearby ancient Dietrichstein chateau.

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Adalbert Residence

Residence Adalbert is located in the town Valtice, in the lower part of the wine street Josefská. Valtice is a small wine town and it is proud of the title „the capital city of wine“. Valtice and its surroundings is a part of the Lednice-Valtice Area that was registered in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Index.

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